Ross Detwiler faces Zack Greinke in the series finale at Dodger Stadium.

As the Nationals wrap up their series in Los Angeles, Bryce Harper again finds himself on the bench watching as a spectator, still held out after Monday night's nasty collision with the right field fence. The club remains confident he did not suffer a concussion on the play, but obviously he's still bruised up and needs a bit more time to heal before re-taking the field.

Harper's teammates can only hope to have more success at the plate tonight against Zack Greinke than they did last night against Clayton Kershaw. Greinke returns after missing a month with a broken collarbone, suffered during a bench-clearing brawl with the Padres.

Ross Detwiler starts for the Nationals, looking to even his record at .500, not to mention catapult his team into first place. Yep, the Braves already lost today in Arizona, so a win tonight would move the Nats into a tie atop the NL East.

""Herd activities" … well, I suppose. I prefer to think of them as rituals, part of the liturgy in the Church of Baseball. Besides, we are herd animals. People who want to be a lone wolf don't know anything about wolves."Not to get to far afield, but I'm not a fan of rote ritual in general (see: Macarana, religious services). I am all about developing meaningful rituals on the "pack" level though.Decent at bat from Moore… too bad about the outcome.

But Manassas, if he'd swung at a ball and struck out we would have criticized him for that too. He didn't do anything wrong in that at-bat.They're bringing in a new pitcher to face Lombo. LOL Mattingly.

Do1teach1 I don't know you all that well because I'm not a super consistent poster, but the lawyer jokes are fairly annoying . They're just not that clever and the general snugness is vaguely intolerable. Now I am in fact a law student so perhaps it only seems stale because I hear nerds making the same comments a bunch, but still, on behalf of everyone….we get it. Ur making fun of somebody else picking law as a profession but not showing sophisticated deductive reasoning. Please no more. And with that I ask: what precisely makes Bernadina more worth playing than eury Perez, who's also a speedy and excellent outfielder but has a decent plate approach?

I'm not a fan of rote ritual in general (see: Macarana, religious services). I am all about developing meaningful rituals on the "pack" level though.Interesting position, coming from a Deadhead. ; )I'm curious what would constitute "meaningful" in the context of thousands of people drinking beer and watching a kids' game being played by millionaires.

"Interesting position, coming from a Deadhead. ; )I'm curious what would constitute "meaningful" in the context of thousands of people drinking beer and watching a kids' game being played by millionaires."Pretty much nothing that extends beyond the people I'm there with…As for being a deadhead, I always wanted to attend shows in a business suit because everyone else always showed up in essentially the same uniform.

I'm in LA tonight, can't get to the game. I did get to hear Espi's rally-killing groundout called on the radio. Bottom line – he is pressing, injured, or both. For his own good, as well as that of the team, Espi needs to sit, at least for a couple games. If nothing else, it will give him a chance to rest his shoulder and perhaps for the doctors to do some tests on it. Maybe he can even see Werth's Dr.? If Bryce is back, then Lombo will play 2nd and continue to get AB's, which he needs.Espi can also go see the eye Dr. to make sure he is not legally blind.

Just getting exuberant, and hoping to stay out of the double play if LaRoche doesn't get him in. Which he should have, there, CMON!! An aggressive rookie, a hot LH hitter up, no outs. Yes, I was kidding. I just wanted to say it first, because, well, then I'd be first!

This is exactly what's wrong with the nationals… To be an elite club they need to be able to manufacture a run. They are too flukey. Sheesh, love me some Nats but we need to learn how to play the game right fellas…

We need a fly ball by either ALR or Desi neither bother to do a deep enough one.Syzuki we dont need a fly we need a hit, and he hits the fly.Go figure.All Desi needed was contact with JZim running and swings hard through it.thats approach again. with 2 strikes and you want to make contact you shorte the swing Been that way sincefirst watched ball in 1959. No Desi swings hard anyway. Which is fine only if you make contact.You can fill in the rest about not nderstanding the need at the time.

First and third and nobody out, and I'm waiting for the bunt, from a Nats team that cannot score runs.The bunt never comes, even though our fastest runner is on third.The lack of imagination in our coaching staff is staggering.

So I guess Storen in all his years in the minors literally never learned how to hold anybody on base. Just do the weird dead leg thing despite the fact that it takes 20 minutes? Is that how it works? This team's really lost it. Not sure how. But whatever it was, they dont have it this year. That's the most negative thing I've ever posted in this space. I've been a believer since the beginning. But tonight was pathetic in almost every respect, Stammen being the exception.

It just happened AGAIN!Again, going back to Game 5, Storen fails to hold the runner, who steals in the 8th inning with NO THROW.This is a joke bullpen. I heard a call on 106.7 to Rizzo before Game 5 last year, asking if our relievers would learn how to hold runners. Rizzo said no sweat, we've got that covered.Then it happened in Game 5.Now it happens every night, including tonight. Paging Mr. Rizzo?

You know the hitting approach of ALR and Desi made no sense, but again. i am not surprised as their not stressed to do the crect swing.Storen I dont get him at all. last 5 appearences have drove me crazy. He needs to solve his problemFor those who lost track we are 0 for 7 RISP.

Sheeeeesh. The inability to grind out a run when you need to, or come through in the clutch is most frustrating. That's the difference between good teams and elite teams. Love my Nats but man… Heartbreaking that we have such great potential, but don't come through when we need to

Crawford understood exactly what do .Storen las 2 games has been pitiful. Created Cub disaster and made this almost impossible. thanks Drew.Just for you David Proctor I am pretty sure Eck will say nothing to the guys.

We were in this same exact position last year at the end of the dodger serious… Not a déjà vu I wanna have. We need to get it together and grind out some wins and not make every other teams 1-5 pitchers look like Cy Young winners…

I just don't understand how night after night people are just showing up and failing. Every night. Storen blows the lead. Next appearance. Loads the bases up and cant keep the game close. Danny. Can't make contact. Bernie. Can't make contact. T Mo. It's just remarkable. Does this coaching staff even give a damn at this point? You have professional. baseball players. Unable to put the ball in play. Every night. Zero sign of improvement. Zero sign of making adjustments. You tell yourself it can't keep going on like this because nobody besides the Mets and Marlins are so anemic, and this team was picked to win the WS. And yet there they are, going up 1-2-3 each inning. It's amazing to watch. Chances Danny fails to make contact here are astronomical.

They can be a game out of first all season long. As long as every team in the NL East keeps losing.The point is they're not scoring runs when they should and giving them up when they shouldn't.The blame game is a beautiful thing but I can see ONE change has to be made.Surgery or beautiful upstate NY.Simple.

p.s. there will be no pissing and moaning if we make the playoffs, at least not from me. There will be pissing and moaning when Danny Espinosa gets playing time. Until he doesn't, because he doesn't belong in the major leagues.

A simpler way of looking at it is unless this team cares about this season, this season is lost. If not for JZimm this season might be already.And Sec3 duly noted. Followed this team since "69.But this is embarrassing. Fundamentals are lacking everywhere. And decisions are questionable.

Lost two series against two worst team each division.If there is no self-destruction by their starting pitcher, Nats cannot overcome one or two run deficit no matter who starts for us. Randy, Pedro you name it.This line-up needs surgery. Bench players hitting avg is below 0.150, avg OBP of whole line-up is worst in baseball, and our great prospect Danny StrikeOut Espinosa is the second worst hitter in All baseball. We cannot fix all of these offense problem at a time, only thing we can hope is let Davey retire quickly and have a nice day at caribean shore.Don't waste your 3 hours watching whole game.Chk it out on gameday and get back to TV when things get fixed.

Well, that was annoying. Not sure the Dodgers are the worst team in the NL West, I think the Padres are. But that eighth inning was a killer, top and bottom. Dodgers were motivated to win this for Greinke. We gotta get moving. Luckily, for right now, the Barves are barfing, and the Fillies lost.

"Let's hope Det's pull, or whatever it is isn't serious."Davey said in the post game that it was a muscle spasm and that it wasn't serious. Hope he's right. Detwiler has been solid all year, with little run support.Davey was much more concerned about Ramos. Same hamstring as last time, and he will be out for a while.

"Laddie, we can survive with Suzuki. But I hope Werth's hamstring is healed."I really like Suzuki. He's such a small guy for a catcher that he needs a day off, now and then, to keep from running down. He started to hit, again, after Ramos came back, and his workload was reduced.Werth should be back soon. He played a few innings in Potomac tonight and had a hit, and an outfield assist. Last year the Nats had injuries early on to major players , but they usually were able to eke out the wins in low scoring games. Having Werth and Harper back, soon, will change the lineup and give them a psychological boost. Davey needs one.Davey looked really down in the post-game presser. This season is starting to wear on him. Tomorrow is a great opportunity for Strasburg to come through with a clutch win, put the smile back on his skipper's face, and make everybody happy.Hey, we're still only 1 game back, and we've got our numero uno going tomorrow night. Strasburg could put us back into a 1st place tie.

Davey is reaping the what comes from country club spring trainings. He let them do their own thing. He encouraged them to work 90 mins or less a day. That is what 10 year olds practice in little league. He trusted them to get ready and they are not…it is too late now.

Man… This team does not take advantage of opportunities. We should be 2 games up on the braves right now. But our offense continues to let us down over and over again without so much as a whisper of change from Rizzo or Davey. Its really frustrating knowing that this team has basically lost if the other team scores first. It could be one run in the first inning and I'd bet that these guys wouldn't be able to get it back. I'm so tired if the total lack of situational hitting on this club.

0 for 9 RISPLombo twice ended innings with base runner (s) on and didn't all RZim to hit. Then the time he leads off he hits and RZim gets a hit.Espi 3 times the catcher gets a hit and Espi follows with an out (i believe all final outs). Ten the last at bat leads off with a hit.Both those guys were in position to really help the cause, bu couldn't get hits when it mattered most.

Watched the whole game as I always do, but, took Coach SJM's advice and slept on it before posting as much as I was tempted to after the 8th. I am still frustrated and mad. The injuries had NOTHING to do with 3 so called solid hitters STINING it up with lame hits and KO's. This is so typical of a 500 team that is over rated, one night a the hot hitters cool donw and the 1 for 15 guys hit with of course nobody on base. Reminds me again of the sorry Senators of 1971. ALR, lame pop out and Desomond's KO was simply TERRIBLE. Worst of all is Storen…I forgave him for game 5, but i will tell you, his performances keep reminding me of game five and I am getting done with him, as I said he is has let his team down time and time again, not that t would have mattered in the 9th as the Nats bats are PATHETIC!